Emptying Ecuador: Migration to the U.S. decimates Andean towns

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Uninhabited houses and desolate streets are the fateful and silent aspects of Ambatillo Alto, a small rural town in Ecuador. It is a place where the effects of the new migration wave of Ecuadorians to the United States, which last year reached around 100,000 irregular immigrants, are being felt.

In recent months, about 200 of the 700 inhabitants of this community in the Ecuadorian Andes have left, searching for opportunities. Most of them are heading to try to enter the United States illegally, according to the president of the town council, Rosa Masabalín.

From underdeveloped areas like this one, on the outskirts of the city of Ambato, the vast majority of the nearly 100,000 Ecuadorians were detained or expelled from the United States due to their irregular status in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

The arrival of Ecuadorians at U.S. borders had only slowed down since last October when Mexico resumed requiring visas for travelers from Ecuador since this country was the springboard to try to cross the border of the northern neighbor.

It is evidenced by the more than 92,000 Ecuadorians who, in 2021 alone, left for Mexico and no longer returned, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.

In some cases, entire families have been captured by “coyoteros.” They have paid sums ranging from US$10,000 to US$20,000 for a risky journey where they risk their lives.

At least in Ambatillo Alto, they know of the case of one person who died in his attempt to reach the border with the United States, although Masabalín avoids giving more details when asked about this story.

BROKE AND IN DEBT

For this population dedicated mainly to the handmade manufacture of shoes and the cultivation of strawberries, the economic crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic has been atrocious and still persists.

“Most have gone bankrupt,” laments Masabalín. At the same time, others had contracted debts and were urged to pay their creditors.

“Sometimes, our colleagues risk their lives to pay off their debts. We are worried that they do not go legally, and when they die or something else happens to them,” remarks the community leader. She asks the government for solutions and help.

Faced with the growing number of uninhabited houses, the community leaders force the families who leave to leave another relative in charge of the house. At the same time, they have implemented night patrols made up of groups of neighbors to avoid robberies.

HUNGER, COLD, AND MISTREATMENT

Luis Ernesto Chuncha, a leader of the Manzanapamba neighborhood, stands on a deserted soccer field next to a closed church. He says that his brother and brother-in-law emigrated to the United States about a year ago.

“Although, with suffering, they have found better days abroad,” Chuncha told. Whose family helped raise the money requested by the “coyoteros” for the trip, ranging from US$12,000, US$15,000, and US$20,000, “depending on circumstances and time”.

“The objective was to arrive, and they have arrived, but they lived hard experiences. They told us they had to go hungry, cold, and suffer mistreatment from the people who took them, also when crossing into the United States,” narrates Chuncha.

“Now they are stable, working, and sending resources, and it is an important point for the economic development of the families and the country,” he adds.

RECORD REMITTANCES

Precisely, those remittances sent by Ecuadorians living abroad set an all-time record in 2021 by reaching US$4.4 billion. It represented 4.1% of Ecuador’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Of all remittances, 63.5% came from the United States, equivalent to US$2.8 billion injected by Ecuadorian emigrants into the domestic economy of thousands of families in Ecuador.

The situation is almost identical in other neighboring communities, such as Quisapincha, where there is a little more movement. However, the large central square looks almost lifeless, only occupied by a set of stalls selling leather goods that wait patiently for someone, hopefully, to pass by during the day.

In this locality, parish authorities indicate that between 40 and 50% of the population has left in the last few months, in a migratory phenomenon that has always existed but has accelerated exponentially as another of the crude consequences of the pandemic.

With information from EFE